An avatar has always posed the same question:
What image do I want to have to represent me? And this question not only is asked when you join Second Life, per say, but any forum or media that requires a profile.
That same question is one of the toughest questions to answer (at least for me) when asked by the therapist.
I have been bouncing here and there on the internet since the BBS era (15+ years ago) and generally preferred just using a mugshot of myself.. but as time passed I noticed that my preference changed as well.
Lately one of my favorite images to stick on a forum post was an image of my son, staring at the web cam with his head slightly bent sideways showing a genuine wonder. I love that picture and it does represent how I feel when I venture in the Information Highway abyss...
Other times I just choose a symbol that represents the general topic of the forum I joined:
Computer forum? a chip will do
Cooking forum? a chefs hat works fine

Still, Second Life brought this avatar image to a new degree. Here I can change shape of my body, clothes, hear style. Heck I can even choose not to resemble a human being at all if wanted to (points to Fox, who represents himself as a Fox ;) ).
So one evening I spent at least 20, 30 minutes just adjusting my avatars nose. Does that mean I am subconsciously no happy with my nose? I don't know... I never thougth I had a problem with it, but it sure is making me look at myself a little more closely.
I tried hair styles that I thought I wanted to wear in real life and opted for a clean cut instead. At least I had the opportunity to go from long hair, to rasta, to curly hair and to a clean cut without the First Life complications.

So what am I right now? I think I am still adjusting my image, just like I am in my First Life. I have a clean cut brown hair, a nice Pink Floyd (the dark side of the moon) t-shirt, roughed jeans and a pair of black basketball shoes.

I call it a transitional avatar... for a moment I went around with nice long pointy ears hoping to spin some heads.. but it seems to be a common style over there... oh well... there goes my ego.